Star Trek:Odyssey 17:Catalyst of Sorrows
by rylansato
Summary: Doctor Plumley finds out that the cure to Captain Allensworth's terminal disease comes at an unfathomably high price. Meanwhile, two new faces are welcomed into the Alexandria family.
1. Medical Emergency

Star Trek: Odyssey: Catalyst of Sorrows

Captain Jermaine Allensworth walked down the corridors of Deep Space Nine's habitat ring. It had been four months since he lost the Alexandria to the hands of the Terran Empire. There were so many things going on lately that he sometimes lost track of the date. Hoshi had gone into labor and she was in the infirmary giving birth to the twins with Dustin by her side. Commander Merriell was on an assignment to try and get the Imperial forces off of Cestus Three. And then there was his own terminal condition that was slowly destroying him. Doctor Plumley was unable to find a cure for it yet but was confident that she could find one.

He was deep in his thoughts that when he turned the corner, he bumped into someone. He reached out and grabbed the person by the shoulders to help keep them from falling over.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention to where I was…" He stopped in midsentence when he realized who he bumped into. It was Lieutenant Dowler. It was the second time he had done it. He smiled when he saw who it was. "I'm sorry, Lieutenant. I didn't mean to bump into you like this again. We keep running into each other like this."

"Quite literally, sir." She said returning the grin.

He really needed to pay attention when he walked now otherwise he would knock the poor girl into retirement if he kept this up.

"It seems like I never see you unless I'm walking down a corridor and thinking about things. Even then I still don't see you because if I did, we wouldn't bump into each other like this."

Dowler smiled at his remark. She was glad that he wasn't one of the uptight captains that never smiled and if a situation like this occurred with one of those type of captains, it would play out with her saying: "I'm sorry, sir. I won't happen again." And they would reply with: "See that it doesn't, Lieutenant." Then they would walk off. Captain Allensworth on the other hand, admitted fault and expressed concern for her when he bumped into her.

"What do you think about when you're walking down the corridors, sir?" She asked.

Allensworth was a bit hesitant on the answer. Dowler immediately realized she crossed a line that she didn't mean to cross.

"I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to pry."

"It's okay, Lieutenant. It's a simple, innocent question. There have been things on my…"

Allensworth stopped and found it hard to breathe all of a sudden. He placed his hand on the wall for support as he bent over. Dowler reached out and grabbed her captain.

"Sir, are you all right? What's wrong?"

Allensworth was trying hard to breathe that he couldn't respond to her questions. She stood up straight and tapped her comm. badge.

"Medical emergency to corridor H twelve A of the habitat ring."

Lieutenant Commander Zofchak stood in the infirmary on Deep Space Nine. He held the hand of Hoshi Sato that was like a vice grip. Her grip was strong and seemed like she was going to rip his hand if not his entire arm off. Hoshi moaned, screamed, yelled, gritted her teeth and breathed heavily. They were the typical sounds a woman made while giving birth.

"Come on, Hoshi. Push." Plumley said from her position between Hoshi's spread legs.

Hoshi yelled as she made the push, not to mention gripped harder on Dustin's hand. She wanted to tear Amanda's head off and bounce it all over the Promenade. She made it sound so damned easy, why didn't' she try it. Hoshi then realized that Amanda had three kids of her own that were living with her husband on Cestus Three.

Cestus Three was attacked four months ago by the Terran Empire while her family was still there. Amanda has had no word on her family's status. She has been able to put up a strong front while on duty but God only knows how she is when she's by herself. Hoshi admired that Amanda could push aside her personal problems and focus on helping give birth to the twins.

"Come on, Hoshi, we almost have Kyou out." She said.

Dustin and Hoshi decided that the first born would be Kyou and the second would by Ryou. Kyou was almost out, which meant that Hoshi had to go through this a second time.

Every nerve in Hoshi's body screamed at her. Pain pushed against pain, and she thought she'd die or pass out at the very least. She wanted to stab Dustin with a Klingon pain stick right about now. She loved him dearly but for these seconds that seemed like forever, she hated him.

Then suddenly, the pain, the circumstantial hate for Dustin all ceased and all she heard was the crying coming from Kyou. Her breathing slowed to a steady pace.

"Good job, Hoshi." Amanda said. "Ryou will be ready to come out in a few minutes."

Dustin kissed Hoshi on the top of her head as he walked over to Doctor Bashir, who was wrapping Kyou in a blanket.

"One beautiful baby girl." Julian said as he handed the infant to Dustin.

Dustin walked over to Hoshi and held the small child down so she could see the face. At that moment, Hoshi instantly fell in love with Kyou and she then looked forward to seeing Ryou. To hell with the pain if she was going to get another beautiful child.

The minutes passed by very quickly and Hoshi was ready to push out Ryou. Dustin set Kyou down on the anti-gravity sled that Bashir had set up to place the twins after they were born. He then returned to Hoshi's side with her hand in his, and just like before her grip was like a vice.

It didn't seem to take as long or seem as hard for Ryou to be born as it was for Kyou. Soon, Ryou was out and crying just like her sister was. Bashir wrapped up Ryou and both he and Amanda handed the new parents each a twin. Dustin held Kyou as Hoshi held Ryou.

The two parents were all smiles as they held the small infants. Dustin handed Kyou over to Hoshi, who now held both twins. Her attention went from one to the other and tears of joy were about to fall from her control.

"They're beautiful." Dustin said. "Just like their mother."

"Congratulations, you two." Amanda said. "You did great, Hoshi."

Hoshi looked up and smiled at the doctor. "I couldn't have done it without you, Doctor."

Amanda smiled before she and Bashir left the room to allow the new parents be alone with their newly born twins.


	2. One Option

Following Jermaine's collapse in the corridor, he was quickly taken to the infirmary where Doctor Plumley's fears were justified. Lieutenant Dowler stood nearby, feeling she had an obligation to be there since she was present at the time of the captain's collapse.

Amanda Plumley stood quietly over Allensworth, intently watching the medical tricorder in her left hand. In her right was a small scanner that she waved over Jermaine's body; it produced a series of shrill beeps that sent chills down the doctor's spine and made her mouth dry.

His condition was rapidly deteriorating. Jermaine's body was flushed of all color and extremely frail. Sweat beaded along his brow, and tiny lesions were beginning to blot his once perfect dark complexion.

Dowler saw Plumley with a morbid look on her face. It was something she rarely saw on the doctor's face.

Bashir came over to her and place a comforting hand on her shoulder. "The rate at which his genetic material is deteriorating has increased exponentially over the past few hours. We're running out of time, and I'm afraid there isn't anything I can do now."

Dowler came over to them. "How long does he have?" She asked.

"Two weeks. Maybe less."

Dowler's heart sank, and an empty feeling came over her. She very much wanted to do something to help the captain but when it came down to it, she was totally powerless. She could do nothing but sit and watch as her captain faded into oblivion.

Some time later, Lieutenant Dowler sat with Counselor Nycz in the counselor's temporary quarters that also served as her office.

"It was hard to see the captain lying there. I know that I've only been with the crew for a few months. Hell, I was only on the Alexandria for a few weeks before it was destroyed. I know that I shouldn't be this close or feel this way but…"

"It's okay to feel that way about a captain because, he's supposed to be larger than life in the eyes of the crew. When one sees the captain vulnerable like that it's hard on the crew."

At that moment, Nycz's communicator beeped. "Plumley to Counselor Nycz."

She reached over and tapped the device. "Go ahead."

"You'd better come down to the infirmary. I have something that might interest you."

Dowler could hear that Amanda's voice wasn't filled with panic or urgency, a detail that relieved the young Lieutenant. The Counselor stood to her feet. "I'm on my way." She then tapped her comm. badge to close the communication. "We can continue this later if you would like." She said.

"Counselor," Dowler said standing up.

The counselor stopped before she reached the door and turned around.

"Do you mind if I joined you. I just feel like I should be there as well."

The counselor shrugged. "Sure."

Together the two of them walked out of the room and headed to the infirmary.

When the two of them entered the infirmary, Doctor Plumley was standing with Doctor Bashir studying some schematics on the computer terminal before them. She briefly looked up from her studies to see who had entered and upon seeing them; she set her work aside and approached them. At that moment, Commander Sparhawk walked in as well.

She pulled out a tricorder and activated the device. "Doctor Bashir and I might be onto something that which could save the captain's life."

"Well don't keep it to yourself, Doctor." Sparhawk said.

She showed the three of them, the captain's genetic structure on the tricorder. She then walked back to the computer terminal and showed them what was on the screen. It was a set up of someone else's genetic structure and it looked a lot like the captain's with a few of obvious exceptions.

"Who's genetic structure are we looking at?" Nycz asked.

"Keith Allensworth. Captain Allensworth's father."

The three of them looked at each other for a moment before they turned their attention back to the doctor.

"Are you saying that the captain's father can help him?" Sparhawk asked.

"Yes, he is the key. We've been running some simulations and we think that with some genetic restructuring and infusing the captain with his father's DNA we would be able to make his father's immune system suppress the disease in the captain's body. However, the equipment needed to perform such a procedure is at Starfleet Medical. We need to go to Earth to do this."

"The Thunderchild is heading that way." Sparhawk said. "I'm sure Captain Stork will give us transport to Earth."

"It will take twelve days at maximum warp to reach Earth." Dustin said behind all of them.

"Let's just hope that he holds out in that time." Plumley said looking at the captain.

Commander Paris awoke and sat up in his luxurious overstuffed bed. He outstretched his arms and thought about how it was good to be the conquerors of a planet. He was placed in charge of the incursion of Cestus III. He didn't mind this assignment. Captain Chakotay placed him in charge of the away team.

He figured the captain wanted him to be on the planet so that the attempts on his life would go down to a minimum. Chakotay knew that Paris was trying to get the chair for himself but the ones that Paris sent to take out the captain always ended up as an example and shoved out an air lock after spending a few days in the agony booth.

However, here on Cestus III, the Federation world that the Terran Empire has consistently held against the Federation every time they attempted to take it back for these past few months. It was rather humorous to Paris that the Federation couldn't even take back this simple world.

Feeling pleased with himself, Paris pulled aside his covers, got out of bed and got dressed into his uniform. He tapped his comm. badge.

"Paris to Lieutenant Illaria. Report."

"Nothing unusual, sir." The female Bolian replied.

"Good. Let me know if anything changes." He tapped his communicator again to cut the communication.

It wasn't much of a report. But then again, there was little for the Imperials to do at the moment. They were able to construct a powerful ground based shield generator that was capable to deflect any weapon that Starfleet could muster. There was some resistance when they first arrived but, the Imperials made short work of them.

Paris enjoyed the comforts of this planet as well as his mistress B'Elanna Torres. He acquired a group of servants. In fact, one of them was due any time now.

At that moment, the doors opened and a male servant walked in.

"Arekkusu, it looks like you've brought my breakfast."

"Indeed I have, Master Paris." The servant replied.

The servant placed the tray of food on the stand next to the bed. The servant was a human in his mid thirties. Short brown hair and brown eyes and seemed to be physically fit.

The doors opened again and B'Elanna Torres walked in with a three year old in tow. Arekkusu straightened up at the sight of B'Elanna. She had a habit of torturing the servants for whatever the reason. Paris usually punished the servants if they misbehaved in someway. He needed a reason. She did not. The three year old was Miral Paris, the daughter of the two.

The three year old ran into her father's arms. After showing a bit of a affection to his daughter, he noticed that Arekkusu was still standing there.

"Tell me, Arekkusu, do you have any children?" He asked.

"Not yet, sir. I do have one on the way. The mother was off planet when the Empire took over and I haven't seen her since."

B'Elanna came closer with her arms folded. Her head slightly turned to Arekkusu. "Leave us."

"Yes, ma'am." He said before walking out the doors.


	3. The Story

Doctor Plumley sat in the guest quarters aboard the Thunderchild. She was sitting at the computer terminal talking with Keith Allensworth.

"So you think that my immune system can help save my son's life?" He asked.

"Yes, sir, we do. All of our simulations say that it will work. With no danger to you or him."

"I'll do anything to help my son." Keith said.

"We'll be doing the procedure at Starfleet Medical, we'll arrive at Earth in about four days." Plumley said.

"I'll be waiting." Keith said before disconnecting the transmission from his end.

Plumley leaned back in her chair and let out a sigh of relief. All they needed to do now was hope that the captain didn't take a turn for the worse.

Arekkusu walked into the room of Commander Paris once again later that week as had every day before, bringing in another tray of breakfast. Paris was in his Imperial uniform staring out the window. He turned around at the sound of the tray touching the desk. Paris walked over and eyed the Katarian eggs and the meat from some animal found on this planet. There were some sort of fruit on a separate plate. He picked one up and bit into it. Arekkusu could tell that Paris enjoyed the taste.

"Good as always, Arekkusu." Paris said. "I think I'll have B'Elanna try this and maybe she won't kill as many of your people today."

Arekkusu smiled and nodded his head. Paris sat down and propped his feet on the desk.

"I think I'm going to write about my experiences here as well as the war itself. That is after we win this war. The Federation can't withstand us. They aren't as smart as us. They're too compassionate. The Empire thrives because of terror. We have no equal."

Arekkusu didn't say anything. He just let Paris talk. He didn't want to give the commander an excuse to kill him.

"Tell me, Arekkusu, do you write much?"

"Actually, Master, I was a writer before you came."

"Really? Tell me about one of them."

"I couldn't possible interest you in one of my measly stories, sir."

"No, go on. I need something to entertain me. It's been awhile since I've heard a good story."

"As you wish, sir."

Before he could start the story, Paris's communicator beeped. He tapped it to open the channel.

"What is it?" He demanded.

"We have lost contact with the ship." Illaria reported. "We are attempting to isolate the reason."

Paris's smile faded. Communications did lapse every now and again. Paris could do nothing about it but hope and wait that they could get back into contact with Voyager. Paris's voice became more demanding and almost terrifying.

"Isolate the cause soon, or I'll put someone in charge who can." He tapped his comm. badge again to close communications without waiting for a response. His attention returned to Arekkusu. "Now, continue with your story."

Arekkusu didn't begin immediately. He strolled over to the window and gazed out it. "I wrote a story about someone like me but I'll refer to the character as me to give you a basis on him. Anyway, I wasn't a servant like I am now but a man of power." He turned around and looked at Paris. "Your equal, if you will."

Paris laughed. "My equal, you?"

Arekkusu had a look of embarrassment on his face. "Obviously not, sir. But in my story, I wasn't from Cestus Three. I was from another planet just like you and the rest of the Terran Empire."

Paris grinned. He was beginning to enjoy the story. "Then where was your ship, Arekkusu? Hidden? And what did you look like. A Gorn? A Cardassian?"

"My ship was away. It had dropped me off. I wasn't any different than what I look like now."

"So you weren't from this planet but you looked like someone who was."

Arekkusu thought for a moment. "I didn't look like someone from the planet originally. I was altered to look like them."

Paris was getting a feeling that this wasn't part of the story but something that he was making up as he went along. Paris played along with it.

"It's true that people on other worlds can arrange to surgically alter their appearances, but why would someone from a world wish to become someone from that world?"

Again, Arekkusu paused, as if trying to come up with a plausible answer. "It was my duty to observe without being noticed. That's why I was altered to look like them."

"Interesting. That's Federation thinking. If you were part of the Empire, the planet would've been conquered. Anyway, go on. Were you able to carry out your mission?"

"I did." Arekkusu said. "I got all the information I needed, until a group of people appeared on the planet and my study was interrupted."

"Was that the end of your story? The arrival of the invaders."

"No, sir. In fact the story was just beginning."

Paris took his feet off the desk and leaned forward, really intrigued.

"I had retained the instruments I needed to send a message to my people, my true people. I contacted them and told them what the invaders were doing to the planet."

Paris felt his smile fading a bit. It was a really strange dream. "What were the invaders doing?"

"They were setting up a depot here to serve the war effort. It was their only foothold in their enemy's territory. Seeing this, I obtained operational data on the shield generator the invaders set up. Then I sent it to my people."

Paris was getting real eager for his servant to finish his story. He clasped his hands in front of his face, no longer touching his food.

"It was my hope with such information, my people could pierce the invader's shield. Then I studied the invader's duty schedules, and recommended the best times for my people to attack."

Paris felt a chill crawling up his spine. He suddenly had the urge to get in touch with Illaria. Tapping his communicator, he called out to her. There was no response. Only a series of loud sounds that sounded like phaser fire.

Paris's mouth was dry. He eyed Arekkusu, wondering what in the name of the Empress was going on. He got up out of his chair and went to the window where Arekkusu was standing wanting to fling the curtains open to see what was going on outside.

"Sorry, sir but I must finish."

"What is happening, Arekkusu? What is this about?"

Arekkusu seemed very calm in front of the frantic Commander Paris. Arekkusu could hear a certain tone in Paris's voice. It sounded like fear.

"Finally, my people did attack. The first thing they did was destroy the few ships that were in orbit."

Paris's mouth went completely dry. "That was why the Imperialists on the surface had lost contact with the ships in orbit. They had been attacked. However, the person in charge didn't respond to that news because he was to eager to hear the rest…"

"Wait, did you say Imperialists? What is going on?"

"The Imperialists are obliged to follow the orders of their commander, who was too busy to give them any. My real people went after the depot and the shield generator was of no help."

"Who are you?" Paris demanded.

"The same person who I've always been, sir, your humble little servant."

At that moment, Arekkusu pulled something from his pocket, of all things, a Starfleet insignia. He placed it on his chest and tapped it. "Merriell to Riker. What's our situation, Captain."

"A successful one." Riker replied. "We've disabled the shield generator and secured the depot. How about you, Alex?"

As Alex was talking to Captain Riker, he pulled out a phaser and had it trained on Paris.

"Everything is fine down here, sir." Alex said smiling.

Paris hung his head, multiple things raced through his head. He'd surely be executed if he got back to the Empire. He flung himself at Merriell, hoping to get control of the phaser.

On the bridge of the Titan, Captain Riker could hear the sounds of a scuffle and then all sounds on the other end stopped after there was the whine of a phaser beam.

"Alex?" He said. There was nothing. "Commander Merriell, report."

Riker glanced at his wife in her seat, who returned the worried look. Then a voice did come through.

"Sorry to worry you, sir. I'm fine but I had to take out Commander Paris."

"Understood. Stand by for transport. Riker out."

Commander Merriell stood up straight as he was whisked away by the Titan's transporter beam.


	4. The Procedure

Captain Stork of the Thunderchild materialized in San Francisco, just outside of Starfleet Medical. They had entered orbit a few hours ago and since he and his crew didn't have an immediate assignment and he wanted to check up on how the procedure was coming along once he came off duty. He looked around to get his bearings, once he realized that the building he was looking for was behind him, he turned around and entered it.

The senior staff with the exception of Doctor Plumley and Captain Allensworth and with the addition of Lieutenant Dowler were in the lobby waiting for the procedure to finish. Dustin and Hoshi were sitting side by side with their newly born infants, trying to keep them asleep or at least calm. Commander Merriell had come to Earth after his assignment on Cestus Three. He got here after the procedure had started and he didn't get the chance to talk to Doctor Plumley yet about the news of her family.

Captain Stork came walking into the lobby. Commander Sparhawk approached him and shook his hand.

"Any word yet?" He asked.

Sparhawk shook his head. "No, sir. Not yet. Doctor Plumley is still in there with the captain and his father."

Sparhawk held out a hand to offer a seat for the captain. He sat down next to Lieutenant Trinn and Lieutenant Dowler.

It was several hours later when Doctor Plumley completed the procedures necessary to heal Jermaine, the delicate process of restructuring his father's DNA was the most complex and time consuming task. Doctor Plumley walked out of the medical room. Everyone stood up from the sight of her.

"It was a success."

Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Can we see him?" Sparhawk said.

"I'll allow two at a time. Commander, you and Christine go first."

The two of them entered the room where the captain and his father were sitting on the edge of the biobeds. The two generations of Allensworth looked to the door when the first officer and counselor.

"That was thoroughly unpleasant." Allensworth said.

"How are you feeling, sir?" Jason asked.

"I'm a bit lightheaded but I'm fine."

Plumley walked through the doors, pulling out the tricorder from its holster on her belt and activating it. She ran it slowly over both the captain and his father, the device beeped, providing her with news that was obviously good to which produced a smile on her face.

"The treatment appears to be working." She said. "We're going to have to do several follow ups but that's something I could do without having to be here on Earth. I would say that our captain is on the road to recovery."

A few days later, Captain Allensworth walked out of Admiral Janeway's office and to his surprise he saw his father standing there waiting.

"Dad? I thought you went back home?"

"What? And miss out spending time with my son? Not on anyone's life." He said with a grin.

The two of them began walking down the corridor.

"So, do you want to go grab a bite to eat?" The older Allensworth asked.

"Sure. Where do you want to go?" Jermaine asked.

When Jermaine didn't get an immediate answer, he looked to his father. He could tell that there was something wrong. Keith Allensworth put his hand on the wall for support.

"What's wrong, Dad?"

"I'm…not sure."

Keith's knees buckled and he reached out to his son for support. Jermaine grabbed him to prevent him from falling to the floor. Once he had a firm grip on his dad, Captain Allensworth tapped his communicator.

"Allensworth to Medical, medical emergency outside Admiral Janeway's office."

Keith Allensworth awoke finding himself staring at the ceiling in the medical bay. In his peripheral vision, he could see Doctor Plumley and his son standing there talking quietly. From what he could tell, it wasn't very encouraging. He couldn't really make out any words.

"So am I all right?" Keith asked propping himself up on his elbows. The two of them quickly came over. Plumley gave the younger Allensworth a look before returning her gaze to the older Allensworth. "So how 'bout it, Doc? Am I all right?"

Plumley hesitated for a bit. "For now." She said.

That was not something Keith expected to hear. "What's wrong?"

Plumley expelled a weary sigh. "It would seem that my cure has a flaw that I wasn't able to anticipate in my simulations." Slowly, she left the side of his bed and activated a monitor mounted on a nearby wall. It activated displaying the familiar double helix of Keith Allensworth's DNA.

Everything looked fine at its current magnification but once Amanda zoomed in on the swirling helix, an irregularity became painfully apparent.

"The modifications I made to your genetic structure are mutating. And I don't know why."

"Can you fix it?" Keith asked.

Plumley nodded but carefully. "I already have but there are indications that the mutation is already starting to recur. For the moment it is contained in the areas altered during the genetic re-sequencing but the containment won't last."

"What does that mean?" Keith asked.

Plumley cleared the display with a quick tap of a button, and slowly closed the gap between them. "If it goes untreated, you will most likely die within a few weeks."

"Then treat it." Captain Allensworth said.

"You might want to reconsider that." Amanda said softly.

"Treatment of Keith would require a genetic reversion to her DNA's original, unaltered state. Unfortunately, that means improvements to his immune system are also reverted. That means I will no longer have the ability to treat you, sir."

"Can't you find someone else with similar DNA to help?" Allensworth asked.

"There is something unique in your father's DNA that allowed for the changes in his immune system to take place. It can only work with another family member."

Allensworth thought for a moment, thinking back to when the Terran Empire attacked Earth. Their attack killed all but two members of his entire family; his father and himself.

Allensworth was faced with a hard decision. Himself or his father.


	5. The Decision

Allensworth sat in the lobby at Starfleet Medical. He stared at the floor with arms resting on his knees and his fingers interlocked. He hoped that this problem would just go away. He had enough problems to deal with and now either he had to die or his father. At that moment, a person came around the corner and stood there for a second, as if they were trying figure out what to do.

Allensworth looked up to see Lieutenant Dowler.

"Do you mind if I join you, sir?" She asked.

Even thought it was the last thing he wanted, he allowed her to sit next to him. She was unaware of what was going on but she could feel the captain's troubled aura. It was damn near suffocating her. He leaned back against the wall.

"How's your relationship with your family, Lieutenant?"

The question caught her off guard. "Sir?"

"I'm stuck with a dilemma. My father's DNA is the key to keeping me alive. I only need follow up treatments for a few months but he could die unless we treat him. If we treat him then the restructured DNA I need will revert back to its original state and I'll die."

"My mother would've had a sister." Lieutenant Dowler said. "When my grandmother was pregnant for the second time, there were complications. When it came down to it, she was face with the choice of her own life or her unborn daughter. She would more than surely die if she had the child. There was a ten percent chance of both of them surviving if she went through with it. She gave the go ahead to abort. She wanted to give her life in hopes that her daughter would survive but there was a forty percent chance of her daughter surviving. However, she would definitely survive if she aborted. My grandfather wanted her to abort to which she ultimately did. She survived. The deciding factor was that if she did then at least one of them would survive. If she went through with the birth, then it was likely that they both would die."

Allensworth nodded. He understood what her story meant but it didn't make the decision much easier.

"Thank you, Lieutenant." He said.

He got up and headed for sickbay. He walked through the doors, to see his father still lying in the bed. Plumley had not yet cleared him to leave because she was still doing tests to figure out if she could save them both. The younger Allensworth came over and sat down next to his father.

"We find ourselves in uncertain times, where the fate of the Federation could be decided in the blink of an eye. And when the time to make a stand against the darkness is at hand, the Federation will need someone to step up and lead the way. That person is not Captain Stork, Admiral Janeway or even Captain Picard. It's you, Jermaine."

"You're giving me too much credit." He quickly retorted. "Life will go on when I'm gone."

"And who will take over in spearheading the war against the Empire." His father asked. He didn't give his son the time to answer. "Nobody. Can you see your counselor leading a war? No. Can you see your doctor doing it? No. Without strong leadership the Federation is damned."

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Jermaine said to himself as the realization finally struck him.

His father smiled. "You didn't survive seven years in the Delta Quadrant with Janeway for nothing."

_Captain's Personal Log: Using my father's modified DNA, Doctor Plumley was able to perform the follow up treatments necessary to save my life. As expected, the procedure mutated my father's DNA beyond repair; he died a few hours later. _

Allensworth walked the streets of San Francisco thinking to himself.

_I killed my father. I am the last of the Allensworth family. The Terran Empire killed the rest of my family and I finished the job with my own. It was for the greater good. I've told myself that ever since he closed his eyes for the final time. Because he gave his life to save mine, I am alive to lead the Federation and we'll have saved billions of lives, just not one of the ones I most held dear. He wanted to be a grandfather and when I went missing and assumed lost, he figured he had lost me when Starfleet said Voyager was lost. He was overjoyed when I returned. Now with the Mirror War, I haven't had time to really look for someone to settle down with. I had assumed that I would've found somebody and maybe I would've if the war hadn't started. But I don't think I'll ever have the time to start a family. I am the last of my family. There will be no more Allensworths after me._

He was brought out of his thoughts by a voice calling out to him. It wasn't a personal calling because they called him by rank so it meant that it was a professional call. He turned around to see Counselor Nycz coming up behind him.

"How are you feeling, sir?"

"I feel empty, evil and guilty. I can hardly stand to look at myself. I just needed sometime to myself."

"I understand, sir. You know I'm here for you, sir. That is my title."

Allensworth grinned slightly. "So, did you need something, Counselor, or did you just come here to tell me that?"

"Actually, sir, I came to retrieve you. We need to report to the starbase in orbit by orders of Admiral Nechayev."

"Well, we don't want to get her mad now do we? We can't have her reassigning us to some random deep space assignment." Allensworth joked.

Shortly later, the Alexandria crew who were on Earth stood in a shuttle in the starship bay of the spacedock orbiting Earth. It was slowly moving through the bay past multiple starships.

"Someone once said that the bureaucratic mind is the only constant in the universe." Dustin said holding one of his daughters.

"Who said that?" Hoshi asked holding the other.

"Doctor McCoy." Dustin said.

"We'll get a freighter probably." Alex said smiling.

"I'm actually counting on Antigone. The new Kaiten class starship." Trinn said.

Dustin shot Michelle a look. "The Antigone? Named after the girl whose father was her brother, who later killed herself in a cave? Not to mention, why the hell would you want a Kaiten class ship? Hell, we'd be better off manning a Constitution class starship." Zofchak said.

"A ship is a ship." Allensworth said.

"Aye, sir." Dustin said. "Thy will be done."

The small shuttle headed towards the Antigone but then elevated to go over the ship. The group all looked stunned when they saw a Sovereign class ship hovering on the other side of the ship. On its hull it read: U.S.S. Alexandria. NCC-2547-A

A smile crept across Captain Allensworth's face. "My friends, we've come home."

A few days later, the rest of the crew had returned to Earth and were assigned to the new Alexandria. The new ship was out of spacedock and currently in drydock and ready to leave to join the rest of the fleet. The drydock arms had spread outward to allow the ship to leave.

Captain Allensworth walked onto the bridge that was new but yet familiar to him. Everyone was at their stations. He looked around and smiled as he approached the center chair.

Jermaine sat down in his chair and pressed a button on the arm of his command chair. "All hands, this is the captain. Prepare for departure and welcome home." He closed the channel by hitting the button on the chair. He looked to Lieutenant Trinn stationed at navigation. "Helm, thrusters."

"Moorings retracted, sir. Thrusters fired. Separating from drydock."

The ship moved away from dry dock and was in position to leave the system.

Captain Allensworth looked around again. He was pleased to be back on a starship after a few months. It was a good feeling and he hoped it would last.

"Let's see how she handles. Warp five, hit it."

The Alexandria-A leapt into warp heading deeper into Federation space, ready to combat the Terran Empire.

The End.


End file.
